Repeal the Irish Blasphemy Law

Posts From Michael Nugent

We start the new decade with the good news that Ireland no longer has the medieval crime of blasphemy in our laws. Over the Christmas period, President Michael D Higgins signed the Blasphemy (Abolition of Offences and Related Matters) Bill 2019, and it has accordingly become law. Atheist Ireland thanks the ...

It is important that Ireland completes the process of removing the crime of blasphemy from our laws as well as our constitution. The Bill designed to do this is currently at the Office of the Attorney General for formal drafting. A report published today on the human rights of non-religious ...

Michael Nugent gave this speech today, Friday 29 March 2019, at the Days of Atheism Conference in Warsaw, Poland. When Atheist Ireland was founded ten years ago, our first task was simply to normalise the use of the words atheism and secularism in public debate. We have come a long ...

The Minister for Justice, Charlie Flanagan, has advised Atheist Ireland that the Bill designed to give legal effect to the outcome of last year’s blasphemy referendum has been forwarded from the Department of Justice to the Office of the Attorney General for formal Drafting. It is called the Repeal of ...

24 victims of blasphemy laws around the world have today published this open letter, asking people of Ireland to remove our blasphemy law in the referendum on 26th of October. Thanks to our colleagues in the International Humanist and Ethical Union for coordinating this. To the good people of Ireland, ...

Atheist Ireland welcomes today’s unopposed vote in the Oireachtas to hold a referendum on 26th October to remove the offence of blasphemy from the Irish Constitution. We have been campaigning for a decade to get this referendum called, and we will campaign for the next six weeks for a Yes ...

Atheist Ireland welcomes the published wording of the proposed amendment of the Constitution on around 25 October to repeal the offence of blasphemy. Atheist Ireland will be meeting this afternoon with officials in the Department of Justice, to clarify any technical or logistical questions that we have. We will then ...

Atheist Ireland welcomes the announcement that our decade-long campaign for a referendum on the blasphemy law has been successful. We will finally be able to vote in October to remove this anachronistic, silly, and dangerous clause from our constitution. The blasphemy ban is anachronistic, because we should be removing 1930s ...

The Gardai are reported to have decided to not proceed with the Stephen Fry blasphemy investigation. The reported reason for this decision is even more dangerous than a prosecution would have been. The Gardai have not denied that the comments were grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matter held ...

The police investigation into Stephen Fry for blasphemy also threatens RTE, the Irish Times and Atheist Ireland. The offence of blasphemy is committed not only by the person who first utters a blasphemous statement, but also by anybody who publishes it. RTE published the statement by Stephen Fry when they ...

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